


Bargaining

by Gourmet



Series: tread lightly round a faerie circle [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Dubious Consent, M/M, mentions of BDSM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 18:26:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gourmet/pseuds/Gourmet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which newton unknowingly enters into a bargain with Fae!Hermann by accepting his offer to share the neural load in the Baby Otachi drift. And now that the apocalypse has been cancelled, Hermann is collecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bargaining

The rim of the chalkboard was digging painfully into Newton’s back for how hard he was pressed against it. If he’d been smart about things, he would have left while the celebration was getting underway. It would have been easy to slip out then – with the alcohol flowing and everyone fluctuating dangerously between stages of grief and exuberance, they wouldn’t have looked twice if one of their numbers had slipped off and disappeared. 

Then again, Newton was extrapolating on human reactions. And that wasn’t really what he was dealing with, was it? Yes, most of the Shatterdome had been drunk and distracted, but not everyone. And definitely not Hermann. Hell, he’d probably only managed to delay this little encounter for as long as he had by becoming a part of the party. He’d turned to drinking and throwing himself into the celebrations, in part because that’s where his heart had been at the time, but there was another part of him that had used the party to avoid Hermann and the things he’d seen in the Drift. 

But that had been last night, and he’d sealed his own fate by stepping foot in the lab again. And maybe a part of him had known that. After all, he’d been working with Hermann for ten years, and fuck, temperament aside, he’d say they’d been friends for a pretty decent number of those years. He’d agreed to this. Maybe he hadn’t really understood what it meant to accept that sort of a favor from Hermann when he’d offered to take half the neural load, but he did now, and Newton wasn’t backing out of it. Probably couldn’t if he wanted to, really. And honestly, maybe Hermann wasn’t…what he’d thought he was, but he still trusted him. 

Mostly. 

Even so, his heart was still racing, and his mouth felt a little dry when he realized he couldn’t back up any further. Hermann didn’t look like Hermann anymore. Well, okay, that wasn’t fair. Because he still looked like Hermann, he just looked different. Honestly, if he’d seen him down the hall or across the mess first, he might not have recognized him right away. His hair wasn’t awful anymore. It was neatly parted and slicked down, making the sharp lines of his face stand out in stark, attractive detail. And his assortment of sweater vests and slightly oversized jackets had been traded in for a suit that fit perfectly snug around him. Almost distractingly so. 

“Well, Newton. It looks as if we did it,” Hermann offered lightly, taking a few extra steps forward, leaving less than an arm’s length between them. 

Newton nodded a little. “Yeah…uh, delayed apocalypse looks good on you, Hermann,” he offered, laughing weakly. He’d seen it before, in the Drift, but being face to face with it was something else entirely. He couldn’t take his eyes off of him. And Newton knew what he looked like in comparison – a flush of red still staining his eye, unshaven beyond the point of ruggedly cool, starting to bruise in places where the tattoos didn’t cover. He darted his tongue nervously out over his lips. 

The way Hermann smiled wasn’t comforting. 

“Yes, well, we are beyond the need for any silly disguises, aren’t we? The kaijus are sealed back on their side for the time being, and you’ve seen more than you should have, haven’t you, Dr. Geiszler?” 

Newton’s first reaction was to correct his method of pluralizing, but for once he held his tongue. Twenty-four hours ago he wouldn’t have had any problem correcting Hermann or working him into a shouting match. But twenty-four hours ago he hadn’t seen the inside of Hermann’s head. He hadn’t known the sorts of things that ran through Dr. Gottlieb’s mind when they were arguing, or when Newton was being particularly aggressive. But he knew now. He’d been Hermann for that small stretch of infinity. Newton had lived within the part of Hermann’s head that wanted to force him onto his knees and shove his cock down his throat until the very act of breathing was dependent on what Hermann chose to allow. He’d felt those moments when Hermann had to forcefully restrain himself from shoving him face first over a desk and beating his ass red and bruised and that cane. Hell, he’d seen a lot of other, considerably more graphic things Hermann had wanted to do with that cane. 

Voice sticking hard in his throat, Newton swallowed several times to free it, starting to fidget where he’d pressed himself against the blackboard. “Uh, little bit, yeah, I guess. I mean, I knew a lot of it, with the whole knowing each other ten years thing, but, uh…couple of new things in there, not gonna lie. Didn’t know you hated parsnips. Or, uh, iron. How did you manage to keep it all out of the la-“ 

The rubber piece at the end of Hermann’s cane touched Newton’s chin, not hard, and pushed up until he pressed his teeth back together and kept pushing until he tipped his head back and exposed the line of throat. Newton swallowed again, harder, and let out a shaky breath through his nose, watching Hermann warily. Maybe he’d been surprised by the series of sexual punishments Hermann had a tendency to fixate on, but Newton could maybe have definitely gotten behind some of that, even – and perhaps especially – when Hermann was just his grouchy, human lab partner. But those had really been among the kinder things he’d seen in the Drift. He still trusted Hermann, mostly, because he’d never seen first-hand any of the violence the Drift shared, but he couldn’t just forget the shit he’d seen there, either, and frankly, it terrified him.

“I have my ways, Newton. That’s all you need to know about that,” Hermann offered, shifting his grip on the cane and stepping in closer, close enough for Newton to feel his breath against his cheek. Hermann lifted his free hand and curled it around the side of his neck, stroking his thumb slowly over his Adam’s apple, and he smiled again, almost tenderly, when Newton shuddered. 

“Don’t fret so much, Darling. I’m going to take very good care of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, apparently I've already decided I need to write more of this. Because let's be honest, 1000 words isn't enough for me. So let's consider this a teaser of things to come and let's hope I don't lose my mind with the rest of it?
> 
> If you're into tumblr, you can find me there at [snowfell.tumblr.com](http://snowfell.tumblr.com/). And if you liked this, I posted it with a silly little inspiration-photoset [here.](http://snowfell.tumblr.com/post/61383273766/pacific-rim-fae-hermann-au-in-which-newton)


End file.
